Run, Girl (If You Can)

When Monday rolled around, Aaron was a bit reluctant to keep his promise but Violet was so excited. He was apprehensive about how this would work out. He had never purposely brought a child to the office before.

Keeley had visited with them a few times when they were still content to sit in a stroller but now she was older and had such a short attention span. How was he supposed to get anything done while still keeping her entertained?

But he couldn't say no now. She woke him up at the crack of dawn by jumping on the bed, babbling on about how Daddy was going to take her to work today. He wasn't like his father; he kept his promises to his children.

He walked through the door from the parking garage at Hale Investments holding Violet's hand and got a lot of very strange looks from other employees. 'What on earth was the boss doing with a little kid?' seemed to be stamped across their foreheads. He wanted to tell everyone to mind their own business.

"Mr. Hale, don't forget about the shareholders meeting today," the secretary called as he passed.

Great. He had completely forgotten. The materials were already prepared but he wouldn't be able to conduct the meeting with Violet present. He doubted she would want to leave his side either. Maybe she could be convinced to go with Cameron or Aiden since she knew them.

"Thank you, Cheryl," Aaron said simply, not letting on that he had actually forgotten.

Violet was enthralled by everything she was seeing since it was all so big and new. It had been so long since she had been here that she couldn't remember it.

When they made it up to Aaron's office, Violet happily pulled some toys out of her backpack and played by herself on the couch. It seemed that his concerns about keeping her entertained were unnecessary.

They both did their own thing relatively quietly (though Violet did talk to herself every so often) for a couple hours until Aiden came barging in.

"Boss man! I heard a rumor that you brought a kid to work today and wanted to see which one for myself. Hi Violet!"

"Hi Aiden," she said shyly with a small wave. He had been at their house enough times that she recognized him.

"Is that really all you came for?" Aaron asked suspiciously.

Aiden was notorious for wasting time but he usually had something useful to say when he came to visit. Especially now that he was the head of the cybersecurity department and had people to oversee. His visits had become much less frequent over the past few years.

"You got me," he sighed. "I actually wanted to ask for some time off. Nova is graduating from college and I want to go to her graduation."

She ended up taking a bit longer than expected because of some scheduling issues with certain classes she needed, according to Aiden. Aaron understood why he wanted to be there for such a special occasion. Over time it had become more obvious that he was truly in love with his online girlfriend.

"You realize you could have gone straight to the HR department to request time off."

Aiden shrugged. "But why would I do that when I could ask you?"

Aaron conceded his point. This kid couldn't be reasoned with. Although he supposed he wasn't much of a kid anymore. Aiden recently had his twenty-fifth birthday.

He ended up having a huge birthday dinner with most of his family and friends, consisting of about eighteen people including the Hales and Singletons. It had been fairly torturous but Keeley said they had to go to support their friend.

Even David, the man who once saved Keeley's hard drive, had been there. He had been surprised to see them there with two toddlers, to say the least. Aaron couldn't deny he felt a bit smug showing off that he got his girl in the end.

"How much time do you need?" he sighed.

"A week. The graduation is on a Friday but I want to spend a little time with her too. It's not until December but I wanted to ask far enough in advance because I know the holidays can get busy."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "You're going to spend Christmas there? Most semesters don't end until the week before."

Aiden nodded. "Yeah. She really wants me to so I felt like I couldn't say no. I can fly back on the 26th and be back to work on the 27th."

"That's fine. Are you finally going to propose to her or not?"

He recalled a conversation they had at Cameron's wedding. Aiden hadn't been sure whether or not he wanted to ask Nova to uproot her life for him back then. But over the past two years he had used all of his available time off to visit her and she had visited him a couple of times as well.

Since Aiden was a department head and Nova had some computer experience herself, he ended up bringing her to work with him when she visited so they could spend more time together. One summer she actually got a temporary job in the cybersecurity department as a consultant because she spent her entire summer break in New York crashing at Aiden's place.

It was fairly obvious neither of them were content with the way their relationship was now. Nova making the move to New York was the obvious choice.

Aiden flushed slightly. Aaron didn't think he even could get embarrassed about something like that. The only other time he had seen him blush was when he had to dress up as Bethany Carlisle.

"I'm planning to do it on Christmas Day so she won't expect it. The ring box will be wrapped like any other present."

A hint of a smile appeared on Aaron's face. It was about time. Aiden was the only one of his friends who hadn't tied the knot yet. Well, technically Kyle was still engaged but he would be marrying his fiancée on Valentine's Day.

With how smitten Nova seemed during the two months she hung around the office, Aaron knew it would happen sooner or later. He had no idea what she saw in Aiden but he claimed they had similar senses of humor.

The thought of yet another clown joining Aiden and Cameron's little posse wasn't the most pleasant one. He would likely have to endure a lot of teasing once Nova was comfortable around him. But the important thing was for his friend to be happy and Nova definitely did that.